Next Time Beat Those Poster Children!

In a Q&A with Mpls St. Paul magazine, Strib metro-section arch-hawk Katherine Kersten puts her finger on newspapers' credibility gap. In addition to believing that the media shilled for John Kerry in the last election, it seems Kersten--an opinion writer--would prefer that her new bosses--ostensibly objective news types--try to make gay marriage look as bad as she thinks it is.

Most major newspapers are 100 percent behind gay marriage. Look at the photographs that run alongside the stories: You see children that are overjoyed with life. It?s over the top!

In other news, apparently Kersten's hire wasn't just a two-fer (metro columnist and conservative), she's also supposed to help resolve the newspaper's long-running difficulties drawing younger readers.

There is an understanding at the newspaper that to attract new, younger people, they need a regular columnist who will present a worldview these people think is missing.

You can read the rest of the interview here. (Thanks to Jim Romenesko for posting the link on his Poynter Institute site.)